, pen name Butsu Sorai, was a Japanese Confucian philosopher. He has been described as the most influential such scholar during the Edo period Japan. His primary area of study was in applying the teachings of Confucianism to government and social order. He responded to contemporary economic and political failings of the Tokugawa shogunate, as well as the culture of mercantilism and the dominance of old institutions that had become weak with extravagance. Sorai rejected the moralism of Neo-Confucianism and instead looked to the ancient works. He argued that allowing emotions to be expressed was important and nurtured Chinese literature in Japan for this reason. Sorai attracted a large following with his teachings and created the Sorai school, which would become an influential force in further Confucian scholarship in Japan. Biography Sorai was born in Edo the second son of a samurai who served as the personal physician of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who was at the time daimyō of Tatebayashi Domain. At an early age, Sorai studied the Zhu Xi version of Neo-Confucianism under Hayashi Gahō and Hayashi Hōkō; however, his father was exiled in 1679 to a rural village what is now Mobara, Chiba after angering Tsunayoshi. In this rustic setting, he continued to study the major Chinese classics, as well as Japanese and Buddhist texts on his own for the next 13 years, which formed the foundations for his later philosophy. In 1692, Sorai's father was pardoned, and the family moved back to Edo. Sorai opened a school near the temple of Zōjō-ji to teach Chinese classics, and in 1696 received a position in the service of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, a senior councillor to the now Shōgun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Sorai was assigned to serve Yanagisawa in his domain of Kawagoe. Later, he was granted income of 500 koku, and was assigned to Yoshiyasu's Edo residence, where he provide advice on political issues. One of these issues involved the Akō vendetta in which the Forty-seven rōnin avenged their fallen lord by killing Kira Yoshinaka in 1702. Whereas Muro Kyūsō, Hayashi Hōkō and others praised the actions of the rōnin for their loyalty, Sorai took the opposite stance and argued that they should be forced to commit seppuku, for regardless of the "righteousness" of their actions and the weight of public opinion, the fact that they committed a capital offense was undeniable, and the rule of the law must be impartial. In